THE JOURNEY PART ONE

I began my journey out of religious fundamentalism while in college, studying to be a minister in the Church of Christ. I came to doubt my religious upbringing of what I saw as the hypocrisy in the fundamentalist church in which I grew up, and I began to be concerned about the failure of my religion to explain why a loving God permitted the birth of babies deformed by a drug the mothers took in the 50s and 60s.

I also began studying books I just ran across in the library. I was particularly taken by Bertrand Russell and his book Why I'm not a Christian. I thought deeply about life and the truth about what is real. I began a quest for the discovery of truth and reality. It was almost easy to escape the shackles of religious fundamentalism. There was a new world to discover, and the library contained all the information I could ever cram in my head. My studies took a backseat to my attempts to understand life and what was real. By the time I graduated, I was no longer a Christian. I don't know when that total break happened, although it did happen while I was in college. When I went to law school, it was easy to continue the journey, which I did in earnest, again shirking my law studies for the more critical examinations of truth and reality.

During the next few years, I was coasting along, knowing that the fundamentalist religion was wrong and that there was no God. However, I began a narcissistic, hedonistic enjoyment of life as I had discovered it. I became gainfully employed and pursued a career fueled by ambition and booze. And as I became successful, I didn't pay much attention to servicing the need to explore truth and reality further.

There were years when I didn't think other than in my chosen profession of being a lawyer. However, by the time I reached my 60s, I returned to my examination of life, true to my belief that the unexamined life was not worth living. I questioned everything and confirmed my atheism. But some of the things I learned when I was religious had really formed my political beliefs. I had the need to help my fellow man for reasons other than religion back when I was in law school. I spent time joining and picketing for the NAACP and became a presidential elector for the Socialist Labor Party in the election of 1964. I sent off for all the Socialist Labor Party literature.

In my 60s, I became what I considered to be a Liberal Democrat, but I didn't really do much to involve myself in politics. In my 70s, I became serious about confirming my atheism and struggling to help others see the fiction in religion. I also worked with how I would come out of the closet in my writing. In some of my blogs, I would say things clearly indicating my position, but I often would delete what I had written. In my 80s, I have become a little bolder, and now that it appears as if retirement is being thrust upon me. I am close to deciding that I will spend the rest of my life finding ways to combat the scourge of mankind, which is religion. God is imaginary. God is a delusion. Religion is a poison. The harm religion has done to our species far outweighs the modest good it provides some believers. I can't believe people shirk reason and facts in favor of blind faith.

So here I am on the eve of my 84th birthday, thinking about what I will do with the rest of my life. It has something to do with my passion for reality and truth-telling. So, I'll do some writing, hiding it in my Row Your Boat Gently blog. But beyond that, I want to actively help people who are having difficulty breaking the bonds of religion. I'm drawn to the service group called journeyfree.org as a template for something I might set up or after which I might pattern what I intend to do.